Thursday Morning Coffee: The five things you need to know this morning.

Good Thursday Morning, Fellow Seekers.
If you've been around politics for a while, then you know how hard it is for politicians
to break from the mold and occasionally swim upstream. In the wake of the Newtown shootings, it's been fascinating to see ordinarily pro-gun rights politicians defy the powerful 2nd Amendment lobby and take those first baby steps toward calling for new gun-control laws.

And that's where we begin today's countdown of the Top Five Stories making news on this 20th day of December:

Casey tells the Inky's Jonathan Tamari that he was "haunted" by the images of children slain in their own school and the teachers who died trying to protect them. Casey said his wife, Terese, confronted him as he reassessed his views over the weekend.

According to the Inky, Casey expressed regret that he had not reconsidered his views as starkly after earlier massacres at Virginia Tech and in Aurora, Colo.

"The power of the weapon, the number of bullets that hit each child, that was so, to me, just so chilling, it haunts me. It should haunt every public official," said Casey, who, the newspaper notes, won a second term just six weeks ago while touting his opposition to gun control.

The rest of today's news starts after the jump.

2. The Corbett administration is in talks with a British company on whether to extend the Dec. 31 deadline to make a decision on the company's bid for a 20- to 30-year contract to run the Pennsylvania Lottery.Elizabeth Brassell, a spokeswoman for the Department of Revenue, which oversees the $3.5 billion Lottery, confirmed that the administration was talking to the Camelot Group about extending the bid deadline.
But Brassell could offer no details on how long the deadline might be extended or when the two sides might reach an agreement.
"We are considering an extension of the deadline, but it can only be extended if it is agreeable to both Camelot and the commonwealth," she said.Kevin Harley, a spokesman for Gov. Tom Corbett, declined comment when he was asked why the talks were apparently taking place.
"We're still doing our due diligence," he said. "Just because there is potential discussion of a continuation doesn't mean there is one."

3. Officials at Penn Statehave given university President Rodney Erickson an $85,000 raise and the chairwoman of the school's Board of Trustees says she won't seek reappointment to her leadership post, the Tribune-Review reports this morning.
The bump will push Erickson's take home to a tidy $600K a year, the newspaper reported. Erickson's predecessor, Graham Spanier, made $700,000 in his 16th year as president.
And on Wednesday, Penn State board Chairwoman Karen Peetz said she would not seek reappointment to the leadership post she has held for a year. Board chairs at Penn State generally serve three consecutive one-year terms, the newspaper reported.

4. Unionized faculty at Pennsylvania's 14 state-owned university are getting ready for a strike as contract talks hit the wall, the Tribune-Review also reports this morning.
“We‘re starting to prepare for that possibility,” union spokeswoman Lauren Gutshall said. “We don‘t want to strike. We have no other option but to prepare.”
A walkout by the system‘s 6,000 faculty members would mean an end to classes for the 120,000 students who attend universities that include East Stroudsburg and Kutztown universities in the Greater Lehigh Valley area.
Negotiations between the State System of Higher Education and the Association of State College and University Faculty stalled after both sides agreed to cancel a negotiating session scheduled for Wednesday in Philadelphia.

5. Democrats in the Pennsylvania Senate added a new wrinkle to next year’s expected debate on how to pay for billions of dollars in repairs to the state’s roads and bridges, insisting that new money for mass-transit agencies also had to be included in any funding bill.
During a Wednesday news conference, a trio of senior Democrats said any effort to uncouple mass-transit agencies from the debate would be a “non-starter,” and would needlessly pit the interests of city-dwellers against residents of the state’s vast, rural middle.
“In rural Pennsylvania, we would not be able to buy salt or build roads without the motorists in the urban areas,” said Sen. John Wozniak of Johnstown, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Transportation Committee. “We’re all in this together.”
Early next year, Gov. Tom Corbett is expected to finally break his silence on which menu of funding options he’ll support to pay for the repair and reconstruction of Pennsylvania’s highways as well bridges that are counted among the worst in the nation.
The Republican governor has refused to discuss specifics, but has said that his proposal will come before or at the same time of his annual budget address in February.

What Goes On.Gov. Tom Corbett unveils the state's new PennWatch government transparency website during a 1:30 p.m. event in the Capitol Media Center.

You Say It's Your Birthday Dept.
Best wishes go out this morning to Patrick McDonnell at the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission; Max Nacheman, recently of CeaseFirePa, and John Morgan of the Pennsylvania Progressive blog. Congratulations all around.

On The Capitol Ideas iPod This Morning.
Christmas is almost upon us and we're hanging the stockings by the chimney with care here at Capitol Ideas World HQ. To help set the festive mood, here's one from ska/reggae pioneers The Ethiopians. It's "Ding Dong (Christmas Bell)."

Thursday's Gratuitous Soccer Link.
So this is just mega: Two titans of European football -- Manchester United and Real Madrid -- will face each other in the last 16 of The Champions League it was announced earlier today.
Some other good pairings in the knockout stages include AC Milan against Barcelona, Arsenal against Bayern Munich and Celtic against Juventus.

And now you're up to date. We'll see you back here in a bit with more news and updates.